1915] on The Archives of Westminster Abbey 467 



butelericf, or pantry, for liis little store of plate and crockery and 

 naperj, including thirteen silver spoons, to show that there is no 

 sordid superstition in monasteries ; a camera^ or bedroom, where he 

 sleeps on a white bed with a tester and (I regret to say it) with two 

 mattresses : a coquina^ or kitchen, not ill-equipped with utensils, some 

 of which, such as the trivet, are -candidly described as"debiles"; 

 and a studium, with ten books and three maps — among which of 

 course there was some scholastic theology : but there was also a copy 

 of the book of Messer Marco Polo, as if to signify that the latest 

 modern literature was by no means excluded ; and I gather from the 

 Provost of King's, who is our unrivalled authority in such matters, 

 that this is a very early instance of English interest in the Venetian 

 traveller's adventures. I am told also that it is still rarer at this 

 period that among his maps there should have been one of Scotland. 



But higher promotion was at hand. On November 29, 1886, 

 there passed away at his manor of la Neyte, near Westminster, our 

 great) builder, Abbot Litlington, to whom we owe the south and 

 west sides of the Great Cloister, the Little Cloisters, Jerusalem 

 Chamber, the Abbot's Hall, much of the present Deanery and our 

 great Missal. The vigour of Litlington's character can be seen 

 in the determined fight which he maintained through William 

 Colchester for the Abbey's privileges : but we have another proof 

 of it. In the " Liber Xiger " (f . 87) there is a record to the effect 

 that a threat of invasion by the French King in 1:^86 produced a 

 unanimous resolution in the Chapter that the old Abbot and two of 

 his monks should don their armour and proceed to the south coast 

 for the defence of the realm. Lest anyone should doul)t whether 

 Nicholas Litlington had any armour to don, I call in evidence a 

 schedule * of such of his effects as passed at his death into the posses- 

 sion of his successor, and you will see that these consisted mainly 

 of various accoutrements : six hauberks ; a helmet (" pisanum " ) ; 

 seven basnetts (also helmets), with visors ; a ketelhat (a 2^k]ceJ' 

 hauhe) ; a pair of plated gloves to give him a mailed fist ; " leg- 

 harneys " ; fore-braces and back-braces ; and four lance-heads. 



William Colchester was w^ell-nigh disappointed of the high office 

 to which he was entitled. He had spent so many years abroad, 

 certainly the last nine years with scarcely a break, and all the time 

 engaged in a cause in which the Court influence was against him, 

 that it is not wonderful if Richard II. desired any other candidate 

 to succeed ; and, in fact, a Westminster chronicler, whom Dean 

 Robinson believes to have been the rival candidate himself, has left 

 a statement! that the King wrote thrice to the Prior and Convent 

 urging the election of John Lakyngheth, the very Treasurer who, 

 perhaps with the keenest satisfaction at thus facilitating his rival's 



* Mim. 5446. 



t J. Armitage Robinson, An Unrecognised Westminster Chronicler, 16, 22. 



